Point-to-point and point-to-multipoint communication devices allow for a transfer of data signals over high-speed serial links. Each transmit channel of the communication devices receives parallel data signals at an input, converts the parallel data signal to a serial data signal and transmits the serial data signal to a receiving channel. Each receiving channel of the communication devices receives the serial data signal from a transmit channel, converts the serial data signal back into the parallel data signal and presents the parallel data signal.
Pre-transmission processing and post-reception processing of the parallel data signals are conventionally performed outside the communication device in additional circuitry. Examples of processing performed by the additional circuitry include framing/de-framing, header insertion/removal, error encoding/detection and byte stuffing/de-stuffing. The presence of the additional circuitry consumes space, power and cost while decreasing reliability.
One approach to improve the space, power and reliability factors is designing an application specific communication device with built-in pre-transmission processing and the post-reception signal processing. Disadvantages of the application specific approaches include increased design costs and fixed signal processing functionality. What is desired is a low-cost communication device where the signal processing is programmable to adapt to a wide variety of applications.